The Arizona sheriff leading the investigation into the disappearance of “Today” host Savannah Guthrie’s mother choked up as he described the desperate search for the missing 84-year-old.
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos was speaking to CBS 5 host Briana Whitney as the rescue mission for Nancy Guthrie enters its fourth day.
“In terms of rescue versus recovery, I know you are still calling it a search and rescue. I also know your homicide detectives are part of this investigation,” Whitney began her segment with Nanos on Monday evening.
Here’s the latest on Savannah Guthrie’s missing mom
“Do you believe you are still looking for Nancy Guthrie alive at this point, that she could be held somewhere, and if so, do you believe that is local in the Tucson area, or that she’s been taken somewhere much further at this point?” she asked.
“I don’t… You know, we’re just not gonna give up hope. We hope she’s out there somewhere,” Nanos replied, his voice cracking with emotion.
“So you still believe this is an active rescue mission at this point?” Whitney pressed the sheriff, who responded, “We hope so.”
“Are you actively DNA testing any items of evidence from the house now, and if you are, how quickly do you expect to get the results from that?” Whitney asked.
“We actually are. So we have our own DNA rapid testing here, and of course, we use a lab. But we’ve been told that the system here in Tucson is down, so we ran that up to Phoenix [Monday],” the sheriff responded.
“So hopefully here we’ll know something from Phoenix that we can maybe get to our labs and get a rush order done from them, but even then it’s still a few days, and nothing’s fast enough, right?” he continued.